


AWOL

by AlphaVulpeculae



Category: Alex Rider (TV 2020), Alex Rider - Anthony Horowitz
Genre: AR Febuwhump (Alex Rider), Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-13 19:14:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29656005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlphaVulpeculae/pseuds/AlphaVulpeculae
Summary: Yassen and Alex’s paths cross unexpectedly and the assassin again pulls him out of a sticky situation.
Relationships: Yassen Gregorovich & Alex Rider
Comments: 8
Kudos: 35
Collections: AR Febuwhump 2021





	AWOL

**Author's Note:**

> A bit new here but enjoying AO3.  
> Right now, this is a one shot but may consider adding more later on.

“An English schoolboy, age 16, was taken from his home...”

Yassen nursed his drink as he scoped the bar looking for his target, however when the screen cut over to the picture of the missing boy, it broke his concentration. 

A familiar blonde-haired, brown-eyed face was shown on the screen to help the public identify him if they saw him. 

Either his caretaker was foolish and wanted to get the attention of the public while he was away or MI6 lost track of him.  Probably the latter.

His target strolled in the door at 11:05PM.  Late . 

Yassen was trained not to develop habits but this man received no such training. The man was known to arrive at this establishment at 11PM every Friday and Saturday. Today was Friday, though somebody or something made him late today. Unusual. 

The man was one of several ‘Lieutenants’ of the organized crime boss syndicate, Cerberus. The man also seemed to fit Yassen’s dimensions nicely so he’d be the first to die on this hit. 

The television volume was turned up by a patron and the reporter continued. “It’s a sad day when one of our own are taken,” the man said. The strip at the bottom of the screen read that the man was the principal of the school. “He is such a brilliant boy. I just pray he’s returned safe and sound—”

“Turn that down,” the man, his target, grumbled. The sound was muted but the channel was left on. 

The scene cut over to a pre-recorded segment. Tulip Jones seated on a park bench giving a statement about Alex. 

They lost him , Yassen thought with bitterness. It was only a matter of time. MI6 took advantage of a  kid . 

He noted his target had taken one more glance at the television, muttered something under his breath, threw back the rest of his drink and left, slapping a few bills on the counter. Waiting an appropriate amount of time, Yassen paid for his drink as well and followed him out. 

Outside, Yassen noticed the slight limp of the man; likely a recent injury considering how awkward the man moved. In the bar, Yassen had also noted the man’s swollen hand and lightly bruised cheek. 

Yassen continued trailing the man’s car in a nondescript car of his own, knocking the bumper of the target’s car at a stop sign a few blocks away beside a barren park.As predicted, the man slowed down and pulled over. 

But this was all by design. It was dark, there no other cars on this stretch of road, and a minor fender bender looked perfectly ordinary to onlookers. 

“What the hell do you—“

Yassen grabbed the man by his throat, dragging him and pinning him to the ground. 

“Strip. Everything.”

“Woah woah woah. I don’t swing that way. Maybe we can work something out—“

Yassen pressed the cold tip of his beretta equipped with a silencer to the man’s head. 

“Okay-okay.” The man did as he was told until he was down to his underwear. 

Yassen didn’t move and the man became more anxious. “I did what you said. Now let me go. This’ll just be between us, don’t worry.“

Yassen narrowed his gaze. “What do you know about the missing kid on the news?” 

The man’s eyes widened cartoonishly“Wh-what? Nothing. I don’t even know who that is.”  An obvious lie.

Yassen pushed the gun further into his face and grabbed him by his hair. “You recognized him. Why?”

The man’s eyes blinked owlishly for a moment longer before darkening; a grin spreading over his face. “He pull a fast one on you too? That kid is a brat.”

Yassen’s eyes narrowed. 

Misreading the assassin’s expression, the man continued and boasted, “My boss said he caught ‘em snooping’ last week. He kept ‘im docile but it must’ve worn off when we was movin’ ‘im. In the end, we got ‘em there.”

“Is he still there?”

“Nah, we did just one bit of his journey. Boss thought he’d make a great guinea pig so we dropped ‘em off. Bet he got what was comin’ to ‘em after all though.”

A bullet sliced through the man skull efficiently, ending further conversation. 

Yassen deftly bundled the man as a local roadside help vehicle pulled up.

Two Scorpia members unloaded from the van to collect the body as a third pulled up in a dark sedan to drive off in the dented one Yassen had been driving. 

Securing the seatbelt in his new car, Yassen took the clothes—a keycard still in the pocket of his slacks—and drove off. 

***

Yassen smoothly entered the basement dressed in the maintenance worker’s attire, carrying the man’s key card. His height, weight, and complexion were similar enough that no one asked questions. With a flash drive tucked away on his person, Yassen took a few sharp turns out of the way from his extraction route to come across a hallway of cells lined heavily with security. 

Approaching one guard, he spoke with authority. “I’m here for the boy. Vardone requested him.”

A guard lead him to the third cell on the right and gave him access to enter through the double-door security. 

“Leave us.” The guard needn’t be told twice and left. 

Positioning himself so his back to the camera, he faced the small figure tucked into the corner of the cell. 

Acutely aware of the camera in the cell, but knowing there was no audio, Yassen called out “Alex.”

The kid was curled up in the corner, pale, bruised, and had some patches were blood dried. 

“ Alex .” The kid offered no reaction. 

Yassen removed a ballpoint pen from his chest pocket and clicked it on—a signal blocker. 

Free from view of the cameras, Yassen kneeled down beside the kid and inspected him closely. 

A breathless moan escaped his lips as Yassen rolled him to his back. His eyes fluttered open. 

“Ian,” he said with a forced smile. His lips were cracked and blood smeared his cheek. Yassen felt a weak grip on his wrist. 

“Can you walk?”

Alex shifted from his lying position and winced. “I need help getting up.”

Yassen leveraged him to his feet, but before he could let Alex stand on his own, the boy’s slim figure shuttered, knees buckled, and only a white-knuckled grip on Yassen’s sleeve and the assassins quick reflexes helped keep the boy on his feet. 

“Okay, maybe I need some more help,”Alex said with a chuckle that morphed into a small coughing fit. 

Yassen adjusted his grip to assume a more firm grip on Alex’s thin waist. 

Fresh blood leaked from Alex’s shoulder onto the uniform but only Yassen seemed to notice. 

Alex remained rather dazed and confused as he leaned heavily on the assassin with a thin bruised arm limply resting on his shoulder. 

“I really miss you, you know. I miss dad too but you were always there more.” Alex was certainly hallucinating from the drugs in his system.When tears started rolling down the boy’s face, Yassen stiffened. 

Alex was far too young for this. 

He thought back to MI6’s pitiful effort to find and free their underaged spy. In general statistics, kids not found in the first 48 hours had significantly diminished chances of being found alive. It seems when Alex had been compromised on his mission he became too inconvenient for MI6 to rescue. 

How convenient, Yassen thought sourly. Why should they pass up aconvenient solution for washing their hands of Alex Rider?

The boy started to slump over, but Yassen had prepared for this and took out a small syringe from the inner pocket of the uniform. 

He hadn’t wanted to use it until it became necessary. There would be concern for how another drug would react with Alex’s present concoction of drugs, however, getting the boy out was a priority and significantly harder to do if he needed to carrying him. 

Regardless of concerns involving the injection, Alex was certainly in rough shape and would need to be monitored closely anyway. 

The adrenaline was essential to helping Alex move himself independently; obstructing either of his hands limited their chances too much to risk. 

Without further ado, he plunged the syringe into Alex’s thigh and the effects kicked in immediately. Yassen held firmly on Alex bodily to steady him upright as his muscles spasmed. 

Once Alex became a little more aware as well, he squirmed desperately against Yassen’s grip to no avail. 

“Alex—“

“Let go of me!” Alex continued to struggle.

A firm shove sent Alex’s back into the stone wall behind him and he was pinned, offered no choice but to look at Yassen. 

“We are leaving and you need to behave accordingly.” Yassen asserted. 

Alex still looked wary but nodded, not seeing a way out of this for now. Though, if the assassin was offering him a way out of this hell hole, who was he to object? 

Twisting Alex around, he handcuffed the boys hands loosely before knocking on the door. With Alex bound, the guards never gave them more than a passing glance as they traversed the winding halls to the front of the building. 

It wasn’t until they were nearing the singular exit near the front of the building that one guard took not and called out, “Hey! What’re you doing? He’s not to go that way. That’s the kid the boss wanted.”

Yassen turned and fired his gun in one smooth, speedy motion, further sliding behind one of the marble pillars in the lobby and pulling Alex with him.The other guard fired off two rounds, one connecting rather close to where Alex’s left side had been narrowly exposed in their narrow cover. 

A black SUV pulled in front just in time as well. 

“Go to the car. I will follow.”

Yassen hit his mark killing the one guard and damaging the other. Several more guards had rushed into the lobby, but were quickly picked off by Yassen as Alex escaped. 

A team in the SUV was ready to receive him, pulling him in, and Yassen wasn’t too far behind. A single guard remained but was soon engulfed in flames from an explosion that rocketed from the front lobby of the building. 

It looked like something out of a horror film watching the man attempt to put out the flames on his person. Alex’s eyes were owlishly wide and transfixed on the horror and devastation they left in their wake. 

Finally coming back to himself, the feeling of adrenaline fading, Alex started shivering which quickly turned to involuntary shaking. 

Soon he was helped into a reclined position by Yassen so a man he didn’t recognize could take his vitals.A warm thermal blanket was settled on his shoulders from behind him but he hardly noticed as the burning sensation where the adrenaline injection had been became overwhelming. 

“Alex.” He heard Yassen voice say being him. But his vision swam and mouth was inordinately dry. All he could manage was a groan as he stretched his fingers over the where the pain was radiating from in his leg. 

A Russian swear word was heard in his ear and he felt more puppet-doll-like than human as he was lifted and had fingers pressing into his thigh. He screamed at the pressure. 

“No exit wound but no significant blood loss. Definitely not an artery, but close.” The man reported. Alex’s vision lacked the focus it typically had and he stared dumbly at the people moving around him. “Alex? Alex Rider.” The man asked, flashing light into his eyes again. “He’s going into shock.”

Hands rubbed warmth through the jacket and into his skin. 

The jacket was zipped up and arms wrapped securely around his torso. 

A tourniquet was applied to his leg too, but his awareness of things started to dim.

Alex settled into the lap of the person behind him, letting his head lull back onto their shoulder, and passed out. 

***

Alex woke to bright lights and an unfortunately familiar sterile smell. 

Blearily he woke as a hand touched his shoulder. Mrs. Jones was sitting at his bedside with a book in hand:  Eat Pray Love .  How mundane , Alex thought. 

“It’s good to see you, Alex,” she said with a kind smile. 

“How did I end up here?” 

“One of the guards from Vardone’s manufacturing plant carried you in and the doctors fixed you right up. You were quite lucky. We were tracking the movement of medical services closely when we recognized the description of you.”

“The guard? Is he still here?” 

“No, security footage shows that he stayed long enough only to see you admitted. Why do you ask?”

Alex knew Yassen was still alive but then again, Yassen may not have dropped him off himself. Still, he seemed to owe that man a lot lately. 

“Oh it’s nothing,” Alex said demurely. “To thank him I guess.” 

If Mrs. Jones questioned his lie, she didn’t act like it and merely resumed reading. 

The nurses bustled in and settled Alex with medicine and further instructions. 

Altogether, the surgery was successful and Alex would be discharged that night. 

*** 

Jack answered the knock on the door to see Alex on crutches. 

“Hey.”

“Alex!” She hugged him to her. “You scared the crap out of me. Oh my goodness. For so long, they couldn’t find you.” 

Peppering him with kisses to his face, he couldn’t even be mad. 

“For some time, I didn’t think I was coming back,” he admitted. 

“ Alex .” Jack’s face was flushed. “Come on, let’s get you inside.”

He became acutely aware that he had no suitcase and no belongings aside from the clothes he was dressed in. 

Mrs. Jones at least had the decency to offer up an ‘I heart DC’ tshirt and nondescript shorts.His shoes had been salvaged but as his socks were grim at best, he had opted to go without. 

Alex made his way inside on crutches as Jack fussed over him all the way up the stairs to his bedroom. 

She even helped him into his favorite sweatpants and into socks as well. 

“You look awful,” Jack said with a huff. 

“Gee, you’re too kind,” he joked. Then he thought of the men Yassen shot and the other he set aflame. “Though, you should see the  other guy.” 

Jack only rolled her eyes. 

“Yeah, no. Not again. That’s it. No more blackmail, no more MI6 ‘vacations’...this is it. I thought I lost you.” 

His crutches slid from their leaning position and clattered to the ground but neither person paid them much attention. 

Thoroughly squeezed in Jack’s motherly embrace, he heard Jack say “They even put out a missing person’s ad. It was terrifying.”

“I’m sorry, Jack.”

“What do you want for dinner? Take away...perhaps a pizza?”

“Pizza sounds great.”

Jack wandered downstairs to place the order as Alex hobbled his way into the bathroom. His skin was bruised and scratched in places, his leg looked the worst. 

Great . Between the bruises, scarring, and feature on the nightly news, perhaps homeschooling was a better option for him. It wasn’t as if MI6 bothered to work around his school schedule anyway. 

Hobbling out of the bathroom and shutting the door behind him, a chill blew through the room and he paused his step, hand grabbing the Swiss Army knife off his bookshelf. 

The window had been opened and Yassen sat in his desk chair in the corner of the room, a gun was aimed at his chest. 

“Little Alex. I am here only to talk.”

Motioning with the gun for Alex to lower his weapon, Yassen put his gun away as soon as Alex put the knife on the floor and kicked it to the side. 

“What do you want?—“

“Alex!” Jack called up. “The pizza will be here in a half hour. Do you want Pepsi or Sprite?” 

Alex hesitated and looked to Yassen. He nodded as to say ‘yes, go ahead.’

“Sprite is fine,” he called down. 

Yassen raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment. “You will not be deployed again.”

“That part isn’t exactly left up to me. They tell me where I’m needed and blackmail me if I say no.”

“You were lucky this time. You will not always be so lucky.” 

“So what do I do? Tell them no; put my foot down and what? They deport Jack, they get my friend’s father fired from his job so he has no choice but to pack up the family and move, and they send me to an orphanage. How can I do that?”

Their conversation quieted when Jack could be heard climbing up the stairs but she—thankfully—went to her room instead. 

“Maybe during one of these missions I will die. That way, no one is risked for my sake.”

“You wish to die?” Yassen asked, eyes narrowing. 

“No?” Alex answered quickly. “I don’t know. It would make things less complicated I guess.”

“ Alex .” 

Before Alex’s brain-to-mouth filter kicked in, he said, “I miss Ian.”

Yassen stiffened. 

“I mean,” Alex corrected, “he always knew what to do.  He’d know what to do.”

It went without saying that Alex might not be in this predicament if Ian  was still around. 

“He left your guardianship to the bank,” Yassen stated flatly. 

“He’s human. He made mistakes,” Alex countered petulantly. 

“And so will you.” Yassen looked at him pointedly. 

Alex nodded. Deep in thought, Alex’s bracing foot fell asleep and he stumbled back into the door, grabbing the knob to the bathroom and wincing at putting weight on his bad leg. 

Yassen moved swiftly, steadying him by a hold on his shoulders. 

“Alex?” Jack called from down the hall. “Are you alright?” 

“Yes, sorry!,” he called back. “I’m just clumsy and knocked something over.” 

Wordlessly, Yassen shifted his grip to allow Alex to brace his forearm as he hobbled to sit on the bed, against the headboard. 

“What other choice do I have?” Alex said softly. 

“You’re young. You have many choices.” Yassen asserted. In a rare form of comfort, Yassen brushed his hair back from his eyes. 

“Leave,” Yassen suggested. 

“And go where?” Alex huffed with some petulance imbued. 

“You can be trained. I will ensure it.”

“Leave with you?” Alex said dumbly. 

“If that is your preference. It will be an option other than MI6.”

There was a knock at the front door.  The pizza delivery person . 

“I got it! Alex don’t move. I’ll bring it to you, kiddo.”

“What is your choice?” Yassen said brusquely. 

“What?!” Alex said a little too loudly. 

A little quieter, “So that’s it. An offer to leave everything I know and love behind to follow you...where?”

“Anywhere. Everywhere, if you do wish. Either I return to collect you or I don’t return. Your decision?”

Time was up. Jack knocked on his door. “Are you decent? I’ve got pizza.”

“Give me a sec.” Alex called and looked back at Yassen who was already half-way out the window. 

“I...don’t know,” he whispered just loud of enough for Yassen to hear. 

Yassen nodded and disappeared as Alex’s door was opened. 

“Were you on the phone? I know Sabina was concerned and called the other day. Perhaps give her a call when you get the chance.”

She set balanced the pizza box on a breakfast tray on his bed so his comforter didn’t absorb the grease from the bottom of the box. 

“I’m allowing this only once.” Her tone was all business but the light smile at the end betrayed her tone. 

They spent the evening eating pizza and polished off the pie between the two of them. Alex eating more than half and Jack allowing it because she was accustomed to Alex’s teenager-styled appetite. Still, Yassen’s offer resonated in his subconscious.   
How could he leave everything behind? How would he live? Where would he live?   
He doubted Yassen wanted to saddle himself with a teenager of all things, especially now that he was injured. Still, he had offered. That had to mean something.   
Maybe that was it though; perhaps it was a one-time offer. Alex settled into bed watching his window mulling things over for the rest of the night.   



End file.
